Long-Term Academic Benefits of Service-Learning: When and Where do They Manifest Themselves?

During the last several years, researchers have been garnering evidence concerning the benefits of service-learning, and urging its inclusion in the curricular mainstream. This study presents evidence that college students manifest long-lasting, if modest, academic benefits from participating in service-learning. The academic records of 477 students who completed an Introductory Child Development lecture course with or without a service-learning requirement were examined, to compare grades earned by the "service-learning" and the "non-service-learning" students in four kinds of upper division courses. Results of ANOVAS yielded differences in student performance consistently favoring the "service-learning" students, although they failed to reach conventional levels of statistical significance. Directions for future research as well as concerns about the more widespread infusion of service-learning are discussed.